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The finding published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences could help explain why two people can consume the same high fat Western diet and one becomes obese and prone to diabetes while the other maintains a slim frame.

"It appears that this base wiring of the brain is a determinant of one's vulnerability to develop obesity," said Professor Tamas Horvath, a neurobiologist at Yale University.

"These observations add to the argument that it is less about personal will that makes a difference in becoming obese, and, it is more related to the connections that emerge in our brain during development."